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Double Heredity

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DNA is essential for life and has its own particular structure that maintains its integrity during its replication. However it can be damaged.
Part A: Describe the structural components of DNA and outline mammalian DNA replication and repair.
Part B: Describe at least one consequence of failure to repair damaged DNA

Throughout the years, humans, especially scientists, noticed the similar characteristics different living organisms inherit from their parents. How those traits were inherited from one generation to the other left the scientists and researchers in confusion. Later in the 20th century, scientists and researchers found out that the reason behind this heredity lays behind genes, which are made up of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) …show more content…

The DNA strands run in opposite directions with one strand being upside-down (Walter et al., 2002). Each nucleotide consists of a deoxyribose sugar that is linked to a phosphate group by a phosphodiester bond to make the backbone of the DNA, and one of the four nitrogen bases (Walter et al., 2002). The four nitrogen bases are adenine (A) and guanine (G) which are purines having two organic rings, and cytosine (C) and thymine (T) which are pyrimidines having one organic ring. The bases pair up by hydrogen bonding to hold the DNA strands together (Walter et al., 2002). A purine is always paired with a pyrimidine since pairing two purines together would be too wide and pairing two pyrimidines together would be too narrow, therefore A is always paired with T and C with G (Campbell et al., 2014, pp. 368 – 383). Hence, DNA is made of a building block called the nucleotide that makes up the two strands and the nucleotide consists of a phosphate group that is attached to a sugar group and a nitrogen …show more content…

It is also an inherited syndrome that is recognized by having a short figure and a very high photosensitivity and in some cases; it may lead to cancer (National Organization for Rare Disorders, 2003). Bloom syndrome is caused by mutations in the BLM gene, which is responsible for giving out instructions to produce RecQ helicases that supports the DNA double helical structure (National Organization for Rare Disorders, 2003). During cell division, the two sister chromatids, which have the DNA copied from both parents chromosomes, goes through a process called sister chromatid exchange where they exchange small parts of the DNA (Genetics Home Reference, 2015). The process may be the reason behind the DNA damage during replication and therefore, the BLM protein works to lessen the sister chromatid exchanges during cell division which as a result helps the DNA maintain its structure (Genetics Home Reference, 2015). In Bloom syndrome, the BLM protein is absent and this is due to the presence of the BLM gene mutation, therefore, the sister chromatid exchange rates would increase which would increase damages in the DNA and therefore block the process of replication (Genetics Home Reference, 2015). This means that without the presence of the BLM protein, DNA damage that is caused by ultraviolet light may not be repaired and DNA replication would be blocked (Genetics Home Reference,

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